Owner/Driver #339

The legal view Sarah Marinovic
Counting kilometres
Jumping from local work to long distance can be a
minefield as far as your logbook is concerned
AS WE ALL KNOW, there are a
multitude of ways to be pinged
for breaching the work diary
rules. I thought I’d seen them
all – from confusing rules
about counting time, to
pulling out (or leaving in) the
wrong duplicate pages, to forgetting to
tick a box.
However, recently I’ve come across a
scenario that’s a new one for me. I hope
that bringing it to everyone’s attention
can help avoid anyone else falling into
the same trap.
This potential breach happens when a
driver unexpectedly switches from local
to 100-plus kilometre work.
The Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL)
requires drivers operating under
standard hours to fill in their work diary
for each day on which they undertake
100-plus kilometre work. The driver is
required to record all work on the day,
including any local (100km) work. They
need to fill in the work diary whenever
they switch from work to rest time and
vice versa.
This is simple enough when the driver
knows that they will be doing 100-plus
kilometre work that day. From the
beginning of their workday they know
th ey need to be recording all work and
rest, no matter where it happens, and so
will begin recording time from the start.
HEFTY FINES
But what happens on those days where
a driver is unexpectedly asked to do a
longer trip? For example, if they started
the day expecting to do all local work
SARAH MARINOVIC is a
principal solicitor at Ainsley
Law – a firm dedicated to
traffic and heavy vehicle
law. She has focused on this
expertise for over a decade,
having started her career
prosecuting for the RMS, and
then using that experience
as a defence lawyer helping
professional drivers and
truck owners. For more
information email Sarah at
sarah@ainsleylaw.com.au or
phone 0416 224 601
then they weren’t required to fill in
their work diary. So they won’t have a
record of their work for the first part of
the day.
In these cases, the HVNL still requires
the driver to fill in their work diary for
the whole day. This means once they
realise they’re going to be doing 100-
plus kilometre work they need to go
back and fill in the information for the
earlier local work. They need to do this
as soon as practicable after they realise
they’re going to be doing 100-plus
kilometre work.
If the driver isn’t aware of this then
they can be facing a court summons
and a hefty fine. If they mistakenly
fill in the beginning of their day as
rest time they could be charged with
making a false or misleading entry,
which carries a maximum penalty of
$11,210.
This is a classic example of the type of
situation where good drivers get caught
out. When we divert from our normal
habits it’s easy to overlook something.
It’s the ‘change of plans’ that often
catch people out.
The take home lesson is to remember
that you need to record all work and
rest on any day you drive more than
100km from your base.
If plans change, try to take a step
back from what is often a chaotic
moment and instead take a moment to
double check the requirements. That
extra few minutes at the start is well
worth it to avoid giving the authorities
a reason to send you to court.
GEARBOX & DIFFS
Unit 1/71 Axis Place, Larapinta, QLD 4110 www.gibbsparts.com.au
P: (07) 3276 9300 F: (07) 3276 9301 E: davids@gibbsparts.com E: gd@gibbsparts.com
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APRIL 2021 37